


All The World's A Stage

by orphan_account



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and the Signal (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Robin War (Comics), We Are Robin (Comics)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), But it's the Waynes, Cass has a terrible fashion sense, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Duke Thomas is Signal, Duke Thomas is a badass, Family Bonding, Gen, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Duke Thomas, I picked and chose from canon, Never Have I Ever, Not Canon Compliant, So yeah, Theater Nerd Jason Todd, Those last two aren't really relevant, Timeline What Timeline, We are Robin, but it's important to me that you know they're canon here, please respect him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25973443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Duke Thomas is fine with being considered the "Good Kid" or "The-one-with-common-sense".He's fine with the fact that the majority of his family doesn't really know him.Really,He's fine with it.(No he's not.)(But at least he's not the only one.)
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Duke Thomas, Dick Grayson & Cassandra Cain & Duke Thomas, Duke Thomas & Everyone
Comments: 15
Kudos: 215





	1. "The Misunderstood Robins"

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome one and all! This fic contains cursing and vague descriptions of violence, stay safe! :D  
> Warning, I only have vague details on the majority of the We Are Robins plotline, so if anything is wrong, please feel free to correct me!
> 
> TW: Violence but it's a very vague mention/description of it, Cursing
> 
> The title is a Shakespeare quote (I'm so original, I know)

If Jason, Tim, and Steph are the “Misfit Robins”, which was coined by Jason just a few days ago, (he had summoned them all to the foyer and had declared it from the top of the stairs. Jason might not accept it but he is the biggest theater nerd Duke has ever met. Tim had eloquently told him to fuck off as he walked back to the living room and his computer. Stephanie had started brainstorming ideas for t-shirts.) Duke, Cass, and Dick are the “Misunderstood Robins”. Even though Cass has never been a Robin. 

Honestly, who spread the idea that Duke was the “good-kid-with-the-only-common-sense-in-the-family”? He literally was in an army of teenagers that fought for Gotham and against its Police. He once got arrested, annoyed the officer driving him to the station, and escaped before they arrived! The only reason he hasn’t gotten into as much trouble in the past year is because he can now look into the future to see the outcome of his (in the words of an exasperated Jim Gordon) “more illegal actions”. Which really shouldn’t be illegal, in his opinion. What’s wrong with some kids gathering in the sewer system? If they just so happen to be meeting to plan shifts for their anti-crime, city-wide movement, that’s none of their business! Honestly, the bias in the police these days! You spray paint eleven police cars and suddenly-

Anyways.

The fact that the rest of the family (besides Stephanie and Dick) apparently think of Cass as the “quiet/shy-child-who-does-no-wrong” is downright hilarious. Sure, she might literally be the “quiet one”, but Cass has worn neon green clothes with bright yellow eyeliner (a fashion disaster, to quote Steph) on multiple occasions before; Her personality is louder than the rest of the family’s words put together. Also, anyone who calls Cass “shy” or “quiet” has never seen her signing while she’s really mad. She makes ASL noisier than Bruce and Dick’s shouting matches. That’s an achievement. And the whole “perfect child” thing? Fucking propaganda. Cass has probably pranked more people then Steph and Tim combined, but you wouldn’t know because she wrote the handbook on playing up the innocent act. Which isn’t called into question often anyways, because most of Duke's family will write her off as innocent from the get-go. And God forbid you get on Cass’s bad side because she’ll dye Alfred the cat bright blue and then plant evidence-making you look like the dumbest criminal in history. (Yes, he is speaking from experince. You steal one cookie from the wrong person and now you have to hide from your raging little brother for four hours.)

And last but not least, Dick. 

Duke blames like 60% of the misconceptions about his eldest brother on Jason. Not only is he the only one who really talks about the time before he died, as the closest in age to Dick and the one who knows most of his friends, Jason seems like a valid and reliable source of info on their brother. 

Until you remember he is biased as hell. 

Don’t get him wrong, Duke loves Jason (He loves all his siblings, even the more annoying and/or violent ones) and they get along quite well, (He’s apart of Jason’s invitation-only family book club) but boy does the second oldest have blood red-tinted glasses when it comes to Dick and a love for sharing what he sees with the rest of them. 

Probably the most common misconception about his brother (inside and outside of the family) is that he’s the “straight-laced-bruce/batman-loving-golden-child”. And everyone who knows him knows that that is exactly what Jason thinks. His favorite nickname for him is Goldie for crying out loud! And speaking from experience, if you know next to nothing about Dick… yeah, it taints your view of him. 

In reality, Bruce and Dick probably have the worst relationship out of all of his siblings, challenged only by Jason. The reason Jason is the only one to talk about his time as Robin is that Bruce and Dick don’t like sharing how much they hurt each other during that time (though in Cass’s and Duke’s humble opinions, Dick definitely got the short end of the stick there but Dick likes to hate himsel- say otherwise.) Alfred has confided in Duke that he hates talking about that period because of the screaming matches that occurred every time Dick stopped by the manor (a tradition that has stood the test of time). The “straight-laced” part is bullshit, in Duke’s experience. Not only is Dick the biggest supporter (enabler) of Cass and Duke’s not-dad-approved-activities, ranging from driving Duke to We Are Robin meetings, to giving them keys to his apartment and money for roundtrip train tickets so B doesn’t find out they got suspended for punching racist assholes again. The eldest also partakes in not-dad-approved-activities himself, including but not limited to: killing the Joker, hunting down Ra’s al Ghul and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t leave Damian and Tim alone, hacking into the Pentagon on a dare from Cass, and signing all of the kids out of school so they could go to the beach.

And this has led to the “Misunderstood Robin’s” unfortunate predicament. 

In the past few weeks, Alfred has decided to enforce an hour of “Family Bonding Time” every Saturday, and due to the fact that even the Waynes aren’t dumb enough to cross Alfred, they all show up. 

All eight of them.

Duke has six siblings.

S I X. 

And to think he used to dislike being an only child. 

(No family friends are allowed, unfortunately. Sorry Barbara.)

The way family bonding time works is everyone writes an activity for them to do on a little slip of paper, which is then put in a hat. Banned activities include shooting people, stabbing Tim (“DAMIAN!” “Tt.” “Yeah, fuck you too, you little demon brat.”), cleaning Jason’s guns, doing Jason’s laundry, doing Stephanie's laundry, doing Duke’s homework (What! It was worth a shot!), and more. The activity chosen from the hat (if it’s not added to the banned activities list) is the one they spend the next hour doing as a happy, functional family. 

(In the six minutes their first bonding session lasted, Damian bit Steph and Tim, so Tim bit Damian back, prompting a full-on fistfight between the two. Jason (secretly) stabbed Dick in the leg because Dick accidentally spilled hot coffee on him while going to check on Stephanie, so Dick (less secretly) stabbed Jason in the hand on the way back to his chair, which made Bruce mad and he started yelling at Dick. Cass reopened her stitches climbing over the couch to avoid the Tim and Damian show, so she had to be rushed down to the medbay with Jason and Dick. Fighting was the first activity to be banned.) 

This week’s game was, drum roll, please…

Never Have I Ever. 

(Do you see their problem now? It’s like walking blind through a minefield; They know that someone is going to set something off, but they don't know who, when, where, or what’ll explode.)

B had tried to set some ground rules: “Don’t get too personal”, “No Targeting”, blah blah blah. Keyword: tried. They’re not even five questions into the first round and Duke is already regretting not lobbying harder for it to be banned. They’ve almost had two “incidents” and neither Jason nor Steph have even gone yet. 

“Never have I ever…” Jason said, drumming his fingers against his chin. Duke really didn’t like that look in his eye. He didn’t need to see the future to know his older brother was about to start some shit. “had a cow as a pet.” 

Duke hated being right sometimes. 

“Grayson! Unhand me this instant!!!” Damian growled, struggling against Dick’s arms wrapped around his stomach. The older just pulled him closer into his lap. 

“Sorry, little D, no can do. You know Alfred’s rules, no fighting during family bonding time.” 

“Father! Did you not hear what Todd said?!” 

Bruce sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Duke almost felt sorry for him. “Jason, I specifically said no targeting.” 

Jason rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. It’s just a game, the kid needs to loosen up a little.” 

Damian growled. Like, a full-on cat growl. If he wasn’t 11 and probably more out of touch with the internet than the average seven-year-old, Duke would ask him if he’s a furry. 

...If he wasn’t aware of how many knives Damian stored in his shoes alone, he probably would’ve asked anyway. It’s honestly surprising the kid isn’t taller, you would think they would be like platform shoes but more pointy. 

“Can we just continue with the game already?” Tim asked as he took a sip of his coffee. The sight makes Duke smile. The teen is drinking from a white mug with “Red Robin” written in red on the front. Duke remembers making it for his birthday after getting inspired by one of their late-night vine binge watches. “Yummmmm” is scrawled in curly script on the inside. Tim’s giggle when he first saw it holds a special place in Duke’s heart (and if that section just so happens to share rent with “memories to use as blackmail against siblings”, no one has to know. Yet.).

“I will not be targeted by the likes of Todd!” 

“Jesus- Jay, can you please just choose something else?” 

“Little wing…” 

“Fine! Fine, I’ll choose a different thing, don’t all jump on me at once.” 

Jason fiddled with his rings as he stared off into space, thinking. Out of all of his siblings' habits, Duke thinks this is one of the most interesting (up there with Steph’s pencil spinning and Dick’s humming). He honestly thinks he could watch Jason play with his rings for hours and never get bored. He’ll spin them, rearrange them; Duke’s pretty sure he once saw Jay do one of those magic tricks where you make the object disappear with his rings. He just finds it fascinating. If he was in his therapist’s office he would say he thinks he’s so obsessed with all of his family’s habits because it helps humanize them when they seem larger than life. Fortunately, Duke isn’t there so he’s not going down that rabbit hole.

“Never have I ever had a bounty on my head.” 

Several faces scrunched up at that. Duke felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Cass sign, “I thought-” before being cut off by Stephanie standing up. 

“Correct moi if I’m wrong but,” She twirled across the room and flopped onto the seat next to Jason, looking up at his face. “Hasn’t there been multiple bounties on you? From both the police and criminals?”

Jason smirked. 

“There have been many bounties on Red Hood, but none on Jason Todd. Now drink up, I know a couple of you have gotten in trouble with those who know your civvies.” 

Duke sighed, and at Cass’s encouraging head nod, grabbed his cup and knocked back its contents. (They were playing with water, one of Alfred’s more “sneaky” methods of trying to keep them hydrated. The red solo cups are supposed to be so no one can drink without the rest seeing, but it just makes Duke feel like he’s at a 6th-grade birthday party.)

Damian and Tim were expected, the Al Ghul’s are… persistent, to say the least. He saw Bruce squint at Dick as he drank, but his brother waved it away with a “Deathstroke.” Duke always forgets that most of the family doesn't know about Tarantula or most of the finer details of Dick’s time with the Blüdhaven Police Department. 

“Duke?”

Oh shit. 

“Guys-”

“When did you get a bounty set on your head?” 

“I think the more important question here is who set the bounty.”

“Master Jason, I demand you put that gun away immediately!” 

“Sorry, Alf.” 

“How much money was it?”

“STEPHANIE!”

“Jeez, don’t get your panties in a bunch, Bossman.” 

“Guys-” 

“Are they still after you, Son?” 

“Why didn’t you tell us? We would’ve helped-” 

“GUYS!” Duke yelled, shooting up out of his seat. 

The room went silent. Perks of being one of the so-called quiet kids: people listen when you aren’t quiet. 

He let out a breath, falling back onto the couch. Duke felt Cass rub his shoulder and smiled at her before leaning forward. 

“Okay. One, no they are not still after me, this was years ago, but thanks for your concern.”

Several faces soured at that. 

“Kid, of course we’re conce-” 

“TWO,” He said, giving Bruce a meaningful look. Duke really didn’t want to deal with that particular can of beans right now. “The bounty was issued by Gotham Police, and, being before I took up Signal or even Robin, it was on Duke Thomas. That also means that I didn’t know any of you, and ergo, couldn’t tell you.” 

The room took a moment to process this, and Duke rubbed his eye: a nervous tell. One that, given the concerned glance Dick and Cass exchanged, his siblings knew about. 

“And why were they after you, Thomas?” 

Well, at least he had a minute longer to prepare than he thought. He sighed, grabbing onto Cass’s hand. She squeezed it twice and tapped her thumb: “You got this” in their personal hand language. They had created it while on bed rest in medical after a rather disastrous Signal-Black Bat mission where they were both taken by the bad guy of the hour. 

“What do you guys know about the ‘We Are Robin’ movement?”


	2. Explanations, a Fight, and Emotional Constipation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I hope you like Chapter 2! :)
> 
> No trigger warnings (except cursing)! Yay!

Jason raises his hand. “They were the kids running around in those stupid Robin jackets, right?” 

Duke winced. While the jackets had seemed good in theory, the execution didn’t live up to what they had imagined. The final product was just some jean/ski jackets with brightly colored R’s sewn on the back. On one of Duke’s rounds with his group a criminal had thanked them, saying “it’s easier to shoot with a target”. But cut ‘em some slack! At the time the group was a bunch of disorganized, unfunded poor kids. Now, they’re (somewhat) organized _and_ (kinda) funded! Not that Bruce knows what he’s funding, though. 

(It’s times like these that Duke loves having a gazillion extracurriculars. Bruce can’t keep track of them all.) 

“Uh huh. Well, you see—” 

“I’m glad they’re gone, those little spalpeens kept trying to interfere with my work,” Jason cut in, leaning forward to grab his tea from the table. “Made my life ten times more difficult, and that’s saying something.” 

He had hoped that Jason of all people would be supporting, but it seems nothing wanted to go his way today. Shifting uncomfortably, uncertain of what to say, Duke saw Cass trying to get his attention out of the corner of his eye. Carefully tilting his head so as not to give away what he was doing, he met his sister’s eyes. 

Huh, she made a good point. 

“Duke?” Tim, raising his eyebrows. “Weren’t you saying someth—” 

An almost imperceptible twitch of her hand and Cass and Duke lunged forward. 

* * *

By the time all was said and done, two chairs had been knocked over, the coffee table now boasted a mountain of assorted weapons, and Duke and Cass were very pleased with themselves.

“What the hell was that about?!” Jason demanded from where he’d been tackled onto the floor. It was strange to see him so not-bulky; He looked half his usual size unarmed. 

“I thought it would be safer to continue this conversation if you didn’t have a military armory stuffed in your jacket,” Cass explained, rushing through the sentence so she could grab onto Duke’s face. He sighed as she turned it back and forth, waving her hands away. His tongue brushed over where Jason had hit him during the fight. Thankfully, he couldn’t feel any damage to his braces or teeth, but _damn_ those rings hurt. That's actually probably part of the reason Jay wears them in the first place. Their brother scoffed but didn’t respond, dropping his head back onto a throw pillow Dick handed him. 

“Do you want to share how Cassandra knows what this is about?” Bruce asked. No, he doesn’t really want to talk about how he got shot on a We Are Robin mission and his friends had called the emergency contact on his phone because they thought he was gonna die. He _really_ doesn’t want to tell them how he’d cried when she appeared over what he thought was his deathbed. How she had held his hand as a fifteen and seventeen-year-old operated on him in a dirty sewer maintenance room. That his powers had gone haywire until he couldn’t tell reality from his visions and he’d actually gotten to believe for _a second_ that his parents— 

Dick snorts and Duke shudders, coming back to himself. A relieved breath escapes him when Dick’s eyes flick towards him, blue scanning his face before meeting brown (and gold). His brother has a… talent for redirecting unwanted attention. 

“Guess we really can’t have a conversation without someone getting interrogated, I owe Wally five bucks.” 

(It’s gotten him punched on numerous occasions.)

“I’m not interrogating them, _Dick_. Am I no longer allowed to ask my children questions?” 

“We all know that wasn’t a question, _Bruce_.” Dick leaned back, repositioning Damian in his lap, much to the younger’s exasperation. In the time Duke has known him, Damian has loosened up (slightly), so it wasn’t as shocking to see him roll his eyes as it would have been just a few months ago, but it was still kinda funny. 

Not meeting their father’s eyes, Dick added, “I thought your therapist told you to stop lying to yourself, B.” 

Tim chokes on his coffee, some of the brown liquid falling back into the cup. Grimacing, he escapes through the doorway closest to his seat, only to return a minute later, though with a freshly filled mug in hand. Jason is practically howling, rolling around on the floor, and Steph barked out a laugh. Cass is covering her mouth but he could see her shoulders shaking. Yeah, it was satisfying to hear Dick shut Bruce down, and his face is pretty funny, all red like that, but Duke could tell this was gearing up to be a screaming match. Way less fun. Though it would save him from explaining… 

He was prevented from deciding whether the impending argument would be good or bad by Alfred clearing his throat. Everyone’s heads whipped up. In the commotion, they had forgotten that the elderly butler was with them.

“I think it would be best if we all allowed Master Duke to finish, hmm?” 

As everyone got comfortable once more, he saw Alfred shoot both Dick and Bruce a warning look. The two men relaxed, though he could tell they were purposefully angling their bodies away from the other. 

Jason rolled over to muffle his continuing laughter into his pillow as Duke started speaking. “For those who aren’t aware, the ‘We Are Robin’ movement was this group that was formed during Damian’s ‘absence’. It was composed of kids and teens, mostly from the poorer parts of Gotham. They were trying to fight crime, kind of like we do, but shit happened and they ended up on the wrong side of the police.” 

He paused, taking a sip of water as an excuse to see everyone’s reactions. Cass and Dick already know everything, and Jason knows the basics of what they are. Now, he’s pretty sure this is one of the few things Bruce doesn’t know about, save for a mention during one of (Jim) Gordon’s famous rants, but Signal is mostly worried about Batman’s reaction to finding out his son is actively working against the police. Alfred, Steph, Tim, and Damian all look ranging levels of both intrigued and bored. 

“The GCPD went to ‘war’ with the kids about a year ago. They put up wanted posters, raided their supposed bases, crashed meetings.” He sighs, looking down at his hands. More quietly, he says, “People on both sides died.” 

Duke looks back up to see Alfred pressing his lips tight and Tim toying with his mug. Damian’s, Jason’s, and Bruce’s faces are all unreadable, but Steph is clearly saddened. Dick offers him one of those encouraging not-smiles as Cass grabs a hold of his hand once more. 

“After the ‘war’ was over, the ‘We Are Robin’ movement is believed to have been disbanded, and everything went back to normal.” Duke lets out a little laugh. “Or at least as normal as Gotham ever gets.” 

He hears some people breathe out quickly through their nose, which is pretty good, considering the general gloominess of the crowd. Duke knows he needs to get this done quickly because understanding is already sparking in more than a few of his family member’s eyes. 

“However, that is wrong. We were never disbanded, just driven underground, and I say we because I’m in the movement.”

Silence. 

Well, that’s a step up from yelling, and several leaps up from maiming, so Duke’ll take what he can get. 

“That’s why the police put a bounty on my head,” He continues. “My group got sloppy one night. We didn’t realize we were being followed until they had gotten close enough to get a good look at me and my friend.” 

More silence. 

And more silence.

And _even more silence_.

Duke takes back what he said about silence being a step up, at least a bullet wound would let him know what they’re thinking. 

His heart pounding in his ears whispers about how they hate him, want him out of the family as he cries, “Can you guys please just say something!” 

Jason sits up, grumbling, “You were smart to take away my weapons. I don’t know if I would stab you for being in a group that’s such a pain in my ass, or for not letting me know sooner that you’re a little rebel. We could have bonded over messing with the authorities, flashlight!” 

Duke fervently glances around at his family: sees Dick’s and Steph’s smiles, the amusement in Tim’s eyes (and he might be imagining it but in Damian’s eyes too). 

Bruce is still unreadable. 

He can hear Jason’s laughter as Cass squeezes his hand, and he starts laughing too. 

Bruce leaves the room, Alfred following, and he just keeps laughing. 

He keeps laughing until he’s actually crying. 

Duke doesn’t notice that he’s crying until Cass jumps on him. She lands with an “oomph” and it’s like that unlocks a door because in seconds he’s buried under his sibling’s bodies and love. Someone wipes away his tears while someone else presses a glass of water into his hands. 

They spend the rest of the afternoon in a puppy pile—even though he knows Tim has work to do and Steph and Cass had plans to go study at the local library—and end up skipping patrol for a night of watching movies and snacking on popcorn and candy. Tim teases Damian when the younger literally eats himself sick and then _Tim_ throws up so they tease him. He laughs and tries to ignore the tightness in his chest that increases at every quiet word heard from the kitchen. 

Duke’s almost asleep when he feels the ghost of a kiss on his forehead. A whispered, “I love you,” has him convinced his already sleep-addled brain had imagined it, and he continues to believe it until he wakes up to an arm loosely wrapped around his back. Looking over, he’s rested against the side of a sleeping Bruce, siblings strewn across the carpet in front of the couch. The tightness in his chest unwinds as he lays his head back against the larger’s shoulder, relief enveloping him like a blanket. 

He does end up getting a lecture later that morning, but the week grounded is worth it when he and Jason are making fun of the employee eyeing them while they browse the spray paints, or when he’s struggling to not smile while his siblings try to explain to Bruce how they all managed to get banned from the only Walmart in Gotham. Apparently, “for the vine” is not an acceptable explanation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated, and please! I love feedback! Please tell me if anything is ever offensive/incorrect.  
> Stay safe everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated, and please! I love feedback! Please tell me if anything is ever offensive/incorrect.  
> Stay safe everyone!


End file.
